farmdrive Wins Innovation in Agriculture Award

farmdrive has been awarded the prestigious Innovation in Agriculture Award at the NI Farming Awards 2025, recognising its transformative impact on livestock management, digital compliance, and supply-chain transparency across the UK and Ireland.

Founded by Co. Antrim entrepreneurs Gareth McDonald (CEO) and Gareth Gordon (CTO), farmdrive was created based on their own family farm experience in response to one of the industry’s biggest pain points – the growing burden of paperwork, compliance, and fragmented data. Designed to be simple, intuitive, and user friendly, the platform has become one of the fastest-growing digital tools in the livestock sector.

Today, over 1,000 farms across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland use farmdrive to manage their herds and streamline regulatory reporting, collectively tracking more than 150,000 cattle. The system also underpins supply-chain programmes for major meat processors including ABP Linden, Foyle Meats, and a number of breed societies, making farmdrive a trusted digital backbone for farm-to-fork traceability.

The judging panel commended farmdrive for its ability to solve practical, day-to-day challenges with measurable impact for farmers and supply chains alike. The platform saves farmers an average of six hours per week on compliance and record-keeping, while processors report over 20 hours saved weekly on paperwork, movement recording, and supply-chain administration.

Fourth-generation farmer and farmdrive CEO, Gareth McDonald, said:

“Innovation in farming isn’t about replacing people – it’s about giving them back time and building systems that work. farmdrive was built to take the pressure off farmers and help them make better decisions using the data they already have. We’re incredibly proud that the industry has recognised the impact the platform is having on the ground.”

farmdrive CTO, Gareth Gordon, commented:

“Everything we build is shaped by lived experience; we engage directly with our app and platform users to hear about their challenges and build features to meet their needs. Winning the Innovation in Agriculture Award is a huge milestone for our team and reinforces our commitment to making technology that actually works for farmers and the supply chain.”

This award is the third for farmdrive in 2025, having also won the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society Innovation Award and Best Startup Award at the NI Tech Awards earlier in the year.

With demand growing across the UK, Ireland, and Europe, farmdrive is expanding its team and advancing new capabilities including AI-powered forecasting, antibiotic-usage analytics, and multi-species support. The company’s growth illustrates the potential for Northern Ireland to lead innovation in agri-tech, combining deep farming heritage with high-value digital skills.

CEO, Gareth McDonald, added:

“This award is for every farmer who has backed us, used our app, or shared their insights to help us build a better product. We’ve expanded into the Republic of Ireland and Scotland to-date, with more regions to come in 2026. We might be building farmdrive in Northern Ireland but our impact will be global.”

Farmers can download the farmdrive app for a free 30-day trial; no card details required. For farmdrive enterprise enquiries, please email [email protected].

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